There are commercial applications in which a wound conductor is used as an electrical conductor or antenna. Such a conductor includes a central core having multiple wires twisted around the core in an axial direction. Such constructions are typically formed by a tubular strander that twists multiple wires together to create a wound finished conductor.
Conventional tubular stranders axially feed a core strand along a tubular feed core path. Multiple wire components are fed radially inward along respective feed paths to intersect the core strand. A rotation is initiated in the multiple wire components as they intersect the core. A helically twisted multi-strand conductor results.
While working well, conventionally available stranders are ill-equipped to make certain wire constructions where the core strand is weak in bending rigidity and where the twist geometry of the resulting wound conductor must be carefully controlled in order to insure proper wound conductor performance characteristics. Existing stranders have difficulty in maintaining the core strand and multiple wire components in the desired configuration within objective specifications. Moreover, wires brought radially inward to a core strand by means of conventional stranders are generally uncontrolled and may crossover each other during the twisting operation. The wound conductor that results may be non-uniform and may exhibit performance anomalies.
Additionally, wound conductors made from existing stranders are typically left with a residual twist in the wire construction. Residual twist is the force within a wire construction that makes the conductor tend to wind or unwind itself. Such forces are undesirable and removing them is important to a well-behaved cable construction and useful product.
Commercially available stranders, therefore, lack the means for maintaining a proper spatial relationship between radial wires and a core strand as the radial wires are fed into an intersecting relationship with the core strand. Improper spatial relation between the feed wires and the core strand will generally result in a faulty twist geometry. Such stranders further lack a means for efficiently eliminating residual twist in the resultant cable construction in order to prevent the cable from an undesirable and uncontrolled winding or unwinding.
A need accordingly exists for a tubular strander that can maintain an optimal spatial relationship between radially fed wire conductors and an axial core strand while the conductors are rotated into a wound conductor construction. Such a tubular strander should allow for careful control of the approach angle between the radial wire conductors and the conductor core and be capable of maintaining a desired pitch of finished product. Moreover, the needed apparatus should provide the means for eliminating residual twist in the wire construction and the finished product.